Chapter 64: Purchasing Ingredients for the Dragon Boat Festival.
After wrapping the zongzi, Gu Qingqiu poured out the water that had dripped from the zongzi in three basins next to the stove in the kitchen, while Sister Zhou and Sister Tang cleaned up the mess outside.
Sister Tang put the large basins containing the ingredients, along with the chopsticks and spoons, into the kitchen sink to soak in water. On a whim, she put on gloves and started washing them.
Sister Zhou then took a rag and started wiping the three dining tables used for wrapping zongzi. She wiped them once with dish soap and then washed them three times with clean water before she felt they were completely clean.
She took the rag in her hand and wiped all the remaining dining tables clean, as well as the chairs, not even letting go of the gaps in the tables and chairs that were designed for aesthetics.
Hearing the boss's words, Sister Zhou smiled and nodded: "Okay, boss, I'll wash this rag and put it away before I come out to eat zongzi."
To be honest, just looking at the neatly arranged, beautifully square, dark green rice dumplings on the plate, and smelling the faint aroma of rice dumplings, Sister Zhou was already craving them.
As someone who makes zongzi, she knows best how good the ingredients wrapped in the bamboo leaves are. She uses the highest quality glutinous rice, a beautifully marbled piece of pork belly with a good thickness, and the salted egg yolk is sandy and oily.
She strode into the kitchen, washed the dishcloths in the vegetable washing basin and hung them to dry in the dishcloth storage area, then walked further to the sink: "Sister Tang, you can wash the ones you haven't finished washing later. The boss told us to go eat zongzi first."
"Okay, I've just finished washing too," Sister Tang replied.
After washing all the large basins, she turned them upside down and placed them on a row of perforated racks to drain. She then scrubbed the chopsticks, rinsed the spoons, and arranged them all so they would be slightly dry before being put into the sterilizer later.
Sister Zhou stood aside waiting for her to finish up before they all came out to the dining room and sat down at the table to eat zongzi.
Gu Qingqiu didn't prepare scissors, so she simply found the end of the rope that was stuffed into the zongzi and pulled it out. She then untied it along the binding marks of the zongzi, placed a whole strip of reed grass aside, and unfolded the zongzi leaves.
Inside, a four-cornered glutinous rice dumpling looked moist and shiny, and the glutinous rice, which was slightly lighter in color than dark brown, looked very fragrant.
She poked a piece with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. It was soft, chewy, and slightly sticky, with a subtle salty taste—not too salty at all. The mung beans mixed in were also soft and chewy, with a dense, savory flavor.
Gu Qingqiu picked up another mouthful of glutinous rice and ate it. With each bite, she poked into a large chunk of glutinous rice. After a couple of bites, she saw the round, bright orange salted egg yolk wrapped in the glutinous rice. As it cooked, the same bright orange salted egg yolk oil oozed out, moistening the surrounding glutinous rice.
She poked it directly with her chopsticks, and put the whole salted egg yolk and glutinous rice into her mouth and took a bite.
The salted egg yolk is the kind that's oily and sandy, with a grainy texture and the unique salty and savory flavor of salted egg yolk, making it very flavorful. The already slightly salty glutinous rice becomes even more delicious after being coated with the salty and savory flavor of the salted egg yolk.
After chewing and swallowing the salted egg yolk along with the glutinous rice, Gu Qingqiu was still savoring the lingering aroma of the salted egg yolk in her mouth, which was incredibly satisfying.
Fortunately, I then picked up two pieces of glutinous rice that had been around the salted egg yolk. The soft, sticky, salty, and fragrant rice was infused with the aroma of the salted egg yolk. The oil from the salted egg yolk moistened the glutinous rice, making it even more savory and flavorful than the outermost glutinous rice I had eaten at the beginning.
Gu Qingqiu saw a large piece of fatty and lean pork belly exposed on the cross-section of the remaining half of the zongzi on the bamboo leaf. This time, the oil oozing from the pork belly moistened the surrounding glutinous rice, making the whole thing look oily and even more appetizing.
She reached out with her chopsticks to pick up that part of the zongzi and eat it. The pork belly had been wrapped in the zongzi and cooked for so long. The various seasonings that had been marinated had seeped into it as the heat rose, making it look very dark brown and very soft and sticky.
Especially the fatty part, it was so soft and bouncy that it felt like cotton when you gently poked it with chopsticks. When Gu Qingqiu put half a piece of pork belly and glutinous rice into her mouth, she could feel the rich aroma of meat. The meaty aroma of the pork belly and the salty aroma of the glutinous rice blended together, making it even more delicious.
The piece of pork belly she picked up was mostly fat, and you could taste the aroma of the overflowing oil when you chewed it. The glutinous rice was also full of meaty flavor, but it didn't feel greasy at all.
Pick up another zongzi with your chopsticks. This time, the remaining pork belly is mostly lean meat, so it's tender, juicy, and savory. It's perfect to eat with the glutinous rice.
Gu Qingqiu was very satisfied with the zongzi she made this time. The pork belly was marinated and flavorful, the salted egg yolks were oily and sandy, and the glutinous rice was cooked until soft, sticky, and savory. Everything together was so delicious!
Another point is that the bamboo leaves are handled well. The rice dumplings are wrapped tightly, and the sticky glutinous rice keeps the bamboo leaves attached without making them too sticky.
If you buy some dried bamboo leaves to soak, you must soak them overnight before using them; otherwise, the glutinous rice will stick to the bamboo leaves and be very difficult to pick up and eat.
She quickly finished the remaining zongzi. Even without pork belly and salted egg yolk, the glutinous rice still tasted rich and savory thanks to the oil from the pork belly and the aroma of the salted egg yolk that it absorbed during the cooking process.
After finishing a zongzi, Gu Qingqiu felt a sense of immense satisfaction. Indeed, eating specific foods on special holidays has a special charm.
She felt as if she had returned to the time when she wrapped and ate zongzi with her parents. The salted egg yolk and pork zongzi she had just eaten tasted exactly like the filling her mother used to make.
Unlike the boss, who would untie the string and unfold the bamboo leaves to place the zongzi on a plate and pick them up one by one with chopsticks, Sister Zhou and Sister Tang untied the string and unfolded the bamboo leaves, then held the zongzi by both ends of the bamboo leaves and brought it to their mouths to eat.
They were immediately captivated by the aroma of the zongzi. The savory glutinous rice, the soft and salty mung beans, the marbled pork belly, and the glistening salted egg yolks—each ingredient was so delicious, and eating them together was simply divine.
For a moment, he couldn't even spare a few words of praise, as he was too busy eating the salted egg yolk and meat rice dumpling.
After finishing the last bite of the zongzi, chewing and swallowing the glutinous rice and mung beans together, leaving a lingering salty and savory aftertaste in the mouth, the only sounds in the shop, apart from chewing and the clinking of chopsticks, were conversations.
Sister Zhou exclaimed, "This is the best zongzi I've ever eaten. The pork belly is cooked so well that it tastes almost exactly like those specially braised pork zongzi. It's fatty but not greasy and lean but not dry. It's especially delicious when eaten with the glutinous rice. The salted egg yolk is also quite oily, which makes the glutinous rice around here even more fragrant."
Sister Tang nodded: "Yes, I was so busy eating that I didn't even have time to talk. I wished I could just swallow the rice dumpling I was eating. The meat and salted egg yolk inside were delicious, and the glutinous rice was flavorful too. This tastes so much better than the rice dumplings sold outside. I'm sure the customers will love it tomorrow."
Gu Qingqiu smiled and said, "I'm glad you like them. I also think these zongzi are quite well made today."
The three chatted for a few minutes, then each opened the remaining zongzi and ate it. The salty and fragrant taste lingered in their mouths, bringing them great satisfaction.
The soft, glutinous fatty meat melts into the glutinous rice, exuding a rich, oily aroma. The lean meat is salty and tender, even breaking into shreds with a bite. The salted egg yolk oozes out a lot of oil, making it crunchy and unforgettable.
After eating two zongzi in a row, Gu Qingqiu let out a satisfied sigh.
If she hadn't been so rational and felt that her stomach was a bit full, she would have definitely gone to the kitchen to get another zongzi to eat.
After finishing another zongzi, Sister Tang picked up her chopsticks and carefully scraped the glutinous rice stuck to the zongzi leaves. There were only a few grains, but she really didn't want to waste any of them.
Sister Zhou also wanted to use chopsticks to scrape the sticky glutinous rice off the bamboo leaves, but unfortunately there were hardly any grains of glutinous rice stuck to the bamboo leaves; they were very clean.
She had to use chopsticks to fold the bamboo leaves slightly and press them firmly onto the plate to prevent them from floating, and then exclaimed, "This zongzi is so delicious, I feel so satisfied."
"Yes, it feels even more satisfying than eating a proper meat dish normally," Sister Tang said with a smile.
Gu Qingqiu smiled, her eyes crinkling: "The zongzi I made today really tasted good. Maybe it's because the Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon. We only eat zongzi a few times a year around this time, so it's something to look forward to."
Sister Zhou and Sister Tang both laughed and said, "That's possible."
The two of them gathered the dishes and chopsticks and went into the kitchen. Sister Tang went to the sink to wash the dishes, while Sister Zhou took out a new rag to wipe the table.
Gu Qingqiu went into the kitchen, took two plastic bags to the stove, and filled each bag with eight salted egg yolk and meat dumplings, intending to have Sister Zhou and Sister Tang take them home for their families later.
She roughly calculated that all the bamboo leaves had been used up, and none of them were torn or unusable. So, according to the original plan, she had wrapped a total of 350 zongzi.
I bought 360 salted duck eggs earlier, thinking that there might be some loss during the process of extracting the salted egg yolks. In fact, three salted egg yolks were broken and unusable after being cracked open.
When she was wrapping the rice dumplings, she noticed that there might be leftover salted egg yolks, so she asked Sister Zhou and Sister Tang to wrap the last rice dumplings as double salted egg yolk and meat dumplings and set them aside separately.
They haven't been cooked yet. The three large iron pots are simmering hot. Gu Qingqiu checked and estimated that they would need to cook for another hour. The remaining zongzi would probably need to be cooked in two more batches.
The zongzi she just gave to Sister Zhou and Sister Tang were all freshly cooked, and they've been sitting for quite a while now and are pretty much cooled down.
After the two women finished their work, Gu Qingqiu handed them two bags: "Take these zongzi back with your families. Everyone can try them, so you won't have to buy zongzi outside anymore."
Sister Zhou smiled and accepted, "Okay, thank you so much, boss! This salted egg yolk and pork rice dumpling smells so good, Fangfang will definitely love it!"
Sister Tang smiled and accepted it, saying, "Thank you, boss. I just ate this zongzi. I really can't stand the zongzi bought from outside."
She'd been working at the shop for almost half a month now and knew the boss's personality—kind and generous—so she wasn't as reserved as she'd been at the beginning. The boss was good to her, so she figured she'd repay him by working hard at the restaurant.
Gu Qingqiu chuckled and shook her head: "It's alright, no need to be so polite. You've all worked hard making zongzi today, so go back and rest early. The zongzi in the kitchen will be done in two more batches, I'll keep an eye on them."
Sister Zhou and Sister Tang smiled and agreed, then packed up and left the restaurant with their bags of zongzi, taking the kitchen waste with them as well.
Gu Qingqiu closed the wooden door, sat down on this side of the hall, picked up her phone and opened the notepad to record Tang Jie's afternoon work hours.
Normally, I work two hours in the evening, but today I've been busy making zongzi since 3 p.m., so I need to calculate it separately to avoid forgetting when it's time to pay wages at the end of the month.
Sister Zhou also worked hard today. Although her monthly salary is fixed, Gu Qingqiu plans to give her a small bonus when she receives her salary at the end of the month.
In addition, tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a statutory holiday, so the two employees will also be paid triple wages.
After quickly jotting these notes down, Gu Qingqiu exited the notes app and turned to Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). She had been busy since the afternoon and hadn't touched her phone much.
As usual, I first clicked into today's menu notes and picked out some comments from netizens to reply to.
After interacting with the post, she exited the note and scrolled down a few pages. She saw that the only vlog already had 87,000 likes, and after clicking on it, the number of favorites reached 113,000, with more than 20,000 comments.
This vlog is definitely the best post in terms of likes, favorites, and comments on the restaurant's official account so far. It has also brought a lot of traffic and new followers to the account, which now has 68,000 followers.
Gu Qingqiu suddenly slapped her forehead, cursing herself for not thinking of this before. She clicked into the vlog and did some operations to pin this one to the top, so that it would always be at the top of the homepage and be the first thing her fans and netizens would see.
Each Xiaohongshu account can set two pinned posts on its homepage. The first pinned post was the self-introduction post I made when I first opened this official account, and it is currently the second most liked post.
The netizens who follow the restaurant's official account are very active. In addition to drooling over the delicious food in the daily menu notes, they also want to leave a mark as if they have visited the restaurant's official account homepage and see the pinned introduction notes. Many of the likes, favorites, and even comments have been added gradually over time, with a lot of likes, favorites, and comments every day.
Phrases like "I've arrived at this hidden gem restaurant," "This restaurant's meat and dishes are truly delicious," "Sorry I'm late," "Give it a thumbs up," and "Checking in" are common.
Gu Qingqiu initially read through many of these comments with a smile, but recently she hasn't paid much attention to them.
After leaving Xiaohongshu, she opened Weibo and clicked on the comments section of the newly posted posts to reply to and interact with some of the netizens' comments.
After finishing replying to these messages, Gu Qingqiu opened Xiaohongshu and switched to her usual account to browse for a while, then checked the time.
It would still be half an hour before the three large pots inside were cooked, so she simply got up, went in, and opened the pot lids. The water level had dropped considerably, so she used a spatula to push the basin of water that was pressing down on the rice dumplings and tilted it. The water in the basin immediately flowed into the large iron pot, and the water level in the pot rose again, being two fingers higher than all the rice dumplings.
Gu Qingqiu took the tongs she usually used to hold plates and pressed them open to their maximum extent. She took out the iron pot, which was also boiling water very hot, and put it aside. She saw that the water in the iron pot had turned pale yellow and cloudy, with oil droplets floating on it. These were the oils from the pork belly in the zongzi, along with the aroma of zongzi leaves and glutinous rice.
She used a spatula to flip most of the rice dumplings in the large iron pot over, then put the lid back on and cooked them again.
The other two large pots were prepared in the same way. After finishing, Gu Qingqiu checked the heat before going upstairs to get her clothes, wash her hair, and take a shower.
After washing up, she checked the time and saw that it was still early, so she dried her hair before coming down to the kitchen. She turned off the heat in the three large pots and let them continue to simmer. Then she packed the cooled rice dumplings into bags, tied them up, and put them in the freezer.
Half an hour later, Gu Qingqiu scooped all the cooked zongzi out of the pot and put them in an empty bowl. After changing the water, she put the remaining zongzi back in to cook. As expected, it was just enough to cook all the zongzi in two pots.
Actually, cooking zongzi doesn't take much time. Just set an alarm, go over in time, turn the heat down to low, and flip the zongzi over.
Gu Qingqiu sat on the dining table playing on her phone. When she got tired of playing, she flipped the two pots of zongzi over, then went upstairs to sit at her desk, flipped through books, and combined her own ideas to decide on the Dragon Boat Festival menu.
Around 10:30, the last two batches of zongzi were scooped out and placed in a basin to drain off a lot of water, and they were almost cooled down.
Gu Qingqiu packed several more bags of zongzi and put them in the freezer. By then, the entire freezer compartment of this super-large refrigerator was filled with zongzi.
She felt a great sense of satisfaction as she carried the three large pots, along with the basins, spatulas, and other utensils, to the sink to rinse them clean. She put the items that needed to be sterilized into the sterilizer, and left the large iron pot upside down to drip clean water for the time being, planning to sterilize it using a special method tomorrow when she had some free time.
After finishing, Gu Qingqiu couldn't help but stretch her muscles. She felt that making this batch of zongzi, from the initial preparation to the actual wrapping and the subsequent cooking and cleaning of the tools, was more tiring than cooking meat and vegetables all night.
She went upstairs to the bathroom to wash her face and refresh herself. After returning to her room and lying on the bed, she didn't have the energy to play on her phone and fell asleep as soon as she lay down.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, after getting up, Gu Qingqiu immediately called all the business partners to ask them to send over meat.
After finishing her meal, she took two shopping carts to the market to buy groceries.
It was probably because of the holiday, but the market was quite crowded, and there seemed to be even more stalls selling zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).
As Gu Qingqiu passed by several stalls, she overheard the prices the vendors quoted to customers, and they seemed to be lower than the prices from the previous two days.
On second thought, it makes sense. If the zongzi don't sell out, they'll be even harder to sell after today. It's better to lower the price a bit today and sell them. Most people will want to buy some zongzi to take home and have as a treat.
Because she had already ordered all the dishes for today, she was quite focused on her shopping goals.
There were only two stalls selling taro in the entire market at that time. Gu Qingqiu picked out a stall that looked fresher and of better quality, picked up a few taro that looked pretty good, and said to the owner, "Boss, give me twenty catties of taro."
Taro is actually more abundant in the market in July and August, but early-maturing taro will also be transported here for sale in mid-June. It has a descriptive name called "June Red". The price is a bit higher than that of taro in July and August, but it is still acceptable.
The stall owner didn't expect to get such a big order so soon after opening. Taro sells well in June, and many customers are happy to pick out two or three to try. Buying 20 jin at once is like a windfall.
He chuckled and replied, "Okay, these taro are very fresh. They were just picked from the field yesterday. I'll pick the best ones for you."
The stall owner tore open a bag and started picking out taro to pack. Gu Qingqiu watched from the side. The taro at this stall were all of similar quality, but the taro the owner picked out did look prettier. It was definitely the best he had picked for her.
After filling several bags and weighing them, the boss noticed that a few ounces were missing, so he added a taro to the bag. The extra pound was charged as twenty pounds, and he even rounded down the price.
"Thank you, boss. I'll definitely buy from you again next time I need something." Gu Qingqiu appreciated his kindness, and thanked him with a smile after scanning the code to pay.
"You're welcome. I'd like to thank you for supporting my business. I'll give you a discount next time you come," the stall owner said with a smile.
He helped carry over several bags of taro and hung them on both sides of the cart handle as Gu Qingqiu had requested, reminding her, "Girl, be careful, don't drop them."
"Okay, thank you, boss."
Gu Qingqiu thanked him again, then pulled the shopping cart to her usual fish stall and bought 30 jin of sea bass. She asked the owner to slice the fish into fillets so she could use them to make fish fillet soup later.
The fish stall owner smiled and agreed. The two had already reached an understanding that Gu Qingqiu would come over here after buying all the ingredients and leaving, and he would help pull the cart to deliver the fish slices to the restaurant.
Gu Qingqiu bought more than thirty lotus leaves and then bought forty pigeons from a stall she had never bought from before. She asked the owner to kill and pluck them for her and left an address for him to deliver to Gu's Private Kitchen on Suli Street around 9:30.
Afterwards, she went to the old lady's vegetable stall and bought thirty loofahs. The old lady was very happy and gave her a 5% discount as agreed beforehand. She even helped to bag them and put them in Gu Qingqiu's shopping cart.
Finally, she smiled kindly and said, "Girl, wishing you a happy Dragon Boat Festival."
"Grandma, Happy Dragon Boat Festival! Take care of yourself." Gu Qingqiu was stunned for a moment; this was the first holiday greeting she had received today. She smiled brightly and offered her sincere blessings.
After saying goodbye to the old lady, Gu Qingqiu went to another stall and bought twenty papayas, all of which were quite large. She asked the owner if they could deliver them to her door, which was on Suli Street.
Perhaps fearing she might lose business before paying, the owner was exceptionally enthusiastic and said it was fine.
Gu Qingqiu readily scanned the code to pay, then left the restaurant's address so the owner could deliver it around 9:30. Otherwise, she really wouldn't have been able to carry the papayas back and would have had to consider making a different soup.
Finally, she went to the general store and bought a lot of peach kernels, lily bulbs, and red beans, as well as several kilograms of dried bean curd.
These items were stuffed into the shopping cart, filling both carts. After paying, Gu Qingqiu went back to the fish stall, greeted the owner, and waited for him to finish serving another customer before asking the stall owner next door to watch the fish stall. Then they each pulled their carts back to the restaurant.
Around 9:30, the pork ribs and beef that I had ordered earlier by phone, as well as the ingredients I had just bought at the market, were delivered one after another.
After Gu Qingqiu signed for the food, seeing how much food there was, she decided to first divide half of the food for the evening into two portions in the main hall. The food that needed to be frozen was put in the freezer, and the food that needed to be kept at room temperature was put in the room temperature cabinet. The rest of the food was carried into the kitchen after several trips.
Then she immediately got busy in the kitchen.
Sister Zhou and Sister Tang knew that business would be good today, so they came to the restaurant early to help out.
In a residential building on Suli Street, Grandpa Lin watched the pendulum clock on the wall swing back and forth. When the hour hand reached eleven o'clock, the clock chimed. He immediately perked up and called out, "Old woman, we can go to the restaurant now."
"Oh, I'm here," Grandma Lin replied from the bathroom. After washing her hands, she put on comfortable shoes. "Let's go."
As the two went downstairs, Grandpa Lin continued humming a little tune: "The weather is so sunny today, the scenery is so beautiful everywhere..."
Grandma Lin walked and talked on the phone, asking her son and his family where they were.
After she hung up the phone, the old man stopped humming and asked, "So, where are you?"
Grandma Lin: "They said they were nearby, and after finding a place to park, they would come in."
"Okay, let's order first when we get here," Grandpa Lin said.
If you go to other restaurants, you have to wait for everyone to arrive before deciding what to order. But at Gu's Private Kitchen, you don't have that problem.
When the whole family comes to eat, they always order everything on the menu, and if they can't finish it, they pack it up to take home and eat it slowly; if it's just the two of them, they order one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and one soup.
Yesterday, the elderly couple had the same idea: tomorrow, on the Dragon Boat Festival, they should invite their son's family to Gu's Private Kitchen for a meal and get together to celebrate the festival.
I just called my son, and he had the same thought, saying he was just about to call them and invite them to Gu's Private Kitchen for dinner tomorrow.
Grandpa and Grandma Lin aren't very tech-savvy; being able to use WeChat already puts them ahead of many of their neighbors.
They heard from their son that Xiao Qiu's restaurant was having a promotion for the Dragon Boat Festival, where everyone who dined at the restaurant would receive a free zongzi (sticky rice dumpling) made by Xiao Qiu. However, only a maximum of one hundred zongzi could be given out at lunch and dinner; that would be the end of the promotion.
One hundred zongzi may sound like a lot, but Xiao Qiu's restaurant is so popular that it serves at least fifteen or twenty tables at lunch and dinner. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, there are many people who come to eat, and if you go late, you may not be able to get a table.
In addition, if they arrived late, they would have to wait in line, so the two elderly people were practically walking to the restaurant right on time.
Upon arriving at the shop, Xiao Zhou warmly welcomed them inside. After ascertaining the number of people in their party, he led them to a large table and provided them with bowls, chopsticks, washing utensils, and tea.
Grandpa Lin instructed her to order everything on the menu, then couldn't help but ask, "I heard that you're getting zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) with your meal today, is that right?"
Sister Zhou smiled and nodded, replying, "Yes, would you like to go now or later?"
"I'll serve it later, thank you," Grandma Lin said.
Sister Zhou replied, "Okay, then just wave and let me know whenever you want to eat."
After she went to serve the next table of customers, Grandpa Lin looked at the five tables of customers in the shop, including theirs, and couldn't help but feel fortunate: "Luckily we came early, otherwise we would have had to wait in line."
Grandma Lin exclaimed, "Xiao Qiu's restaurant is doing so well, it makes us happy just to see it."
"That's right, it's brought honor to our Suli Street," Grandpa Lin said with considerable pride.
I've noticed that now in Yunjiang District, when I chat with people about restaurants, they all praise Gu's Private Kitchen on Suli Street for its delicious food.
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